Your Google Business Profile Category Might Be Costing You Bookings

If you run a tour, attraction, excursion, class, or any bookable experience, there's a setting on your Google Business Profile you've probably never touched: your category.

Most operators pick something generic when they set up their profile and never look at it again. That's a mistake. Your category tells Google what your business actually is — and it directly affects whether you show up when travelers search for things to do.

Why This Actually Matters

Google uses your category to match you with the right searches. Pick the wrong one, and you're invisible for searches you should be winning.

Google also tells you flat out to pick the most specific category available — not the broadest one. So if you're running:

• A sightseeing company → you want **Sightseeing Tour Agency, not just "Tour Operator"
• A kayaking outfit → Canoe & Kayak Tour Agency
• A fishing charter → Fishing Charter
• A hiking business → Hiking Guide
• A boat excursion company → Boat Tour Agency
• A whale-watching operation → Whale Watching Tour Agency
• A helicopter tour company → Helicopter Tour Agency

Generic categories get you generic visibility. Specific categories get you found by the people actually searching for what you do.

If the perfect category doesn't exist for your business, Google's rule is simple: pick the next most appropriate one. You can't invent your own category, no matter how well it describes what you do.

The Categories Worth Knowing

Tours & Sightseeing: Tour Operator, Tour Agency, Sightseeing Tour Agency, Travel Agency, Sport Tour Agency, Outdoor Activity Organiser, Tourist Attraction, Tourist Information Center, Visitor Center

Boat & Water: Boat Tour Agency, Canoe & Kayak Tour Agency, Canoe & Kayak Rental Service, Whale Watching Tour Agency, Fishing Charter, Fishing Camp, Diving Center, SCUBA Tour Agency, Surf School, Water Sports Equipment Rental Service

Outdoor & Adventure: Outdoor Activity Organiser, Adventure Sports Center, Hiking Guide, Rock Climbing, Rafting, Bungee Jumping Center, High Ropes Course, Mountaineering Class, Hang Gliding Center, Archery Range, Horseback Riding Service, Ski School, Sports School

Transportation-Based Experiences: Bus Tour Agency, Boat Tour Agency, Helicopter Tour Agency, Balloon Ride Tour Agency, Carriage Ride Service, Chauffeur Service, Bus Charter, Bicycle Rental Service, Motorcycle Rental Agency, Car Rental Agency

Attractions (people come to you): Tourist Attraction, Museum, Aquarium, Zoo, Water Park, Amusement Park, Wildlife Park, Observation Deck, Historical Landmark, National Park, Visitor Center

Classes & Experiential: Cooking Class, Dance School, Art School, Pottery Class, Photography Class, Yoga Studio, Golf Instructor, Martial Arts School, Language School

"Private Tour Guide" Isn't a Real Category

This trips up a lot of operators. You might describe yourself as a "Private Tour Guide" — but that's not necessarily something Google lets you pick.

Here's how to translate what you actually do into a category Google supports:

• Private city guide → Sightseeing Tour Agency
• General tour guide → Tour Operator
• Hiking guide → Hiking Guide
• Fishing guide → Fishing Charter
• Boat guide → Boat Tour Agency

Match the category to what you do, not to the title on your business card.

More Categories Isn't Better

Google gives you one primary category and up to nine additional ones. That doesn't mean you should use all nine.

Say you're a sightseeing company offering walking tours, food tours, private tours, historical tours, and ghost tours. You don't need five categories for that. You need one solid primary category — Sightseeing Tour Agency — plus only the additional categories that genuinely apply.

Google's own guidance is to use as few categories as possible while still accurately describing your business. Stuffing your profile with categories doesn't help you rank for more searches. It just muddies what Google understands about you.

Your Category Is Step One. It's Not the Whole Game.

Getting your category right matters. But if that's all you fix, you're leaving the bigger opportunity on the table: Google Things to Do (GTTD).

GTTD is where Google surfaces bookable tours, attractions, and activities directly to travelers — sometimes for free, sometimes through paid placements. And here's the part most operators don't realize:

Fareharbor and Bókun only push minimal feed data into GTTD. Your booking software connects you, technically — but "connected" and "optimized" are two very different things. If your feed data is thin, Google has nothing to work with, and you stay buried under operators who've done the work.

We fix that gap. We take the content you've already built out on your OTA listings — Viator, GetYourGuide, Expedia — and bring that same level of detail into your Google feed. Better Google Maps presence, better GTTD placement, and none of it routed through an OTA commission.

Don't Just Be on Google. Make Sure Google Understands You.

You can have the best tour in your market and still be invisible because Google doesn't have a clear picture of what you sell. The right category. Accurate business info. Properly structured activity data. A real GTTD connection — not just the bare minimum your booking software sends over.

That's the whole picture, and most operators are only doing a piece of it.

If you want to see exactly how this works — category selection, GTTD optimization, and getting your inventory properly connected — check out the course:

thingstodomarketing.com/course